Protesters held candles and posters during a rally against the Delhi gang-rape in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Dec. 30.

India’s government says it will soon start publishing the names of convicted rapists, in the hope that such a public shaming will have a deterrent effect.

A home ministry spokesman said the government would soon begin publishing the names, addresses and photographs of all convicted rapists.

India’s junior home minister R.P.N. Singh has ordered the National Crime Records Bureau to prepare a database of all rape convicts in the country and upload the details on its website, the spokesman said. State police also will upload details of rapists to their police’s websites.

But such tactics have been used elsewhere, including the U.S., with only mixed results.

Megan’s Law in the U.S., which was introduced in 1996, require law enforcement officials to keep a registry of sex offenders and make them available to the public.

However, a report carried out in 2008 by the New Jersey Department of Corrections found that Megan’s law had been largely unsuccessful. According to the study, 10 percent of sex offenders were re-arrested on subsequent sex-crime charges before the law was introduced, while the figure came down marginally to 7.6% after the law was enforced.

India is considering a naming-and-shaming approach in response to the gang rape in New Delhi this month of a 23-year-old student, who died Saturday from her injuries. Six men have been charged with her murder. Indians seeking harsher punishment for rape hope the woman’s death will spur action by authorities on the failings of India’s criminal-justice system. The government has said it also is looking to bring in harsher penalties and quicker sentencing for rape. It has appointed a panel headed by a former chief justice, which will present its report in January.

Some female rights activists lauded the naming-and-shaming strategy.

“This is a very good move,” said Mamta Sharma, chairwoman of the National Commission for Women, adding that public humiliation could serve as a deterrent.

But others said the publishing of rapists’ details doesn’t get to the nub of the problem. Many rapes go unreported due to family pressure to cover up sexual assaults. In many cases, police refuse to register complaints from women claiming to have been raped, activists say.

Even those that make it to court can take years to make their way through India’s broken legal system. There are between 40,000 to 100,000 rape cases pending nationwide, according to estimates by women’s activists. In 2010, only a quarter of alleged rape perpetrators were convicted.

Urvashi Butalia, a female rights activist and publisher of feminist literature, said laws governing rape need to change. She said one major problem was that the current criminal code doesn’t allow for rape inside a marriage. Another is that Indian troops who rape women in Kashmir or the northeast of the country are protected from civilian prosecution by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, she added.

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